“For Love of Liberty” Chronicles Untold Story of African – Americans’ Courageous Service to their Country

By Jason Lewis (Sports Editor)

Published March 17, 2011

NAACP Presents Image Award for Outstanding Documentary to “For Love of Liberty Frank Martin Film Chronicles Untold Story of African-Americans’ Courageous Service to their Country

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots, the powerful four-hour documentary film chronicling African-Americans who risked their lives to create and preserve freedom for their country while attempting to acquire it for themselves, captured the award for Outstanding Documentary (Theatrical or Television) at the 42nd Annual NAACP Image Awards held last Friday (March 4) in Los Angeles. The program, which beat out several high-profile films for the honor, salutes our African-American service men and women and reveres their dedicated allegiance to the United States military. It recently returned to the airwaves across the country via PBS to coincide with Black History Month in February.

Hosted by Halle Berry, narrated by Avery Brooks, and featuring an introduction by Colin Powell, For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots begins at the dawn of U.S. history and uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document the accomplishments of African-American men and women since the earliest days of the republic. Their gripping personal stories paint a deeply moving historical account of service and sacrifice, from the Revolutionary War–whose first casualty was a Black man, Crispus Attucks–to today’s battle against global terrorism.

The program also received praise for the impressive music that accompanies its visual storytelling, a combination of songs and original underscoring for voiceover readings by a veritable who’s who of entertainment figures, among them Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Alan Rickman, Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, Donald Sutherland and Louis Gossett, Jr. Winner of the 2010 Gold Medal for Excellence in Film Music at the Park City Music and Film Festival, independent Blix Street Records issued the original soundtrack last fall (www.blixstreet.com). The soundtrack presents 17 musical pieces taken from the score, deftly combining instrumental passages with vintage and contemporary vocal performances.

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots was produced by Rudy Poe, Frank Martin and James Crite. The executive producers are Louis Gossett Jr., Hillard Elkins, Dennis Considine, Richard Hull and Kevin Clark. The soundtrack album was produced by Frank Martin, Blix Street Records founder Bill Straw, score composer Lawrence Brown and song-producer Steve Goldstein. Made with the U.S. Army’s full cooperation (www.goarmy.com), the film is sponsored by US Bank, Ford Motor Company and State Farm.